Home > STATEMENT OF OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED "AG-GAG" LAWS FROM BROAD SPECTRUM OF INTEREST GROUPS

STATEMENT OF OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED "AG-GAG" LAWS FROM BROAD SPECTRUM OF INTEREST GROUPS

We, the undersigned group of civil liberties, public health, food safety, environmental, food justice, animal welfare, legal, workers’ rights, journalism, and First Amendment organizations and individuals, hereby state our opposition to proposed whistleblower suppression laws, known as “ag-gag” bills, being introduced in states around the country. These bills seek to criminalize investigations of farms that reveal critical information about the production of animal products.

These bills represent a wholesale assault on many fundamental values shared by all people across the United States. Not only would these bills perpetuate animal abuse on industrial farms, they would also threaten workers’ rights, consumer health and safety, law enforcement investigations and the freedom of journalists, employees and the public at large to share information about something as fundamental as our food supply. We call on state legislators around the nation to drop or vote against these dangerous and un-American efforts.